vmware-harden 1.8.0

AI-native VMware compliance and baseline enforcement

vmware-harden

Disclaimer: Community-maintained open-source project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by VMware, Inc. or Broadcom Inc. "VMware", "vSphere", "ESXi", and "NSX" are trademarks of Broadcom. Source code is publicly auditable at github.com/zw008/VMware-Harden under the MIT license.

AI-native VMware compliance and baseline enforcement. Sibling to the vmware-* skill family.

• Read-only against vSphere — and provable (v1.8.0): all 6 MCP tools carry the [READ] marker and none mutate managed VMware infrastructure; scan_target writes only to the local twin DB (a cache of its own observations). With VMWARE_READ_ONLY=true the family read-only gate verifies that at startup instead of taking the docs' word for it, and the same variable strips write tools from every write-capable sibling. See Read-only mode.

GA family member (since v1.5.18)

Production-ready compliance platform with 6 built-in baselines (CIS ESXi, vSphere SCG v8, 等保 2.0 三级, PCI-DSS 4.0, EU NIS2, BSI IT-Grundschutz), 87 rules, multi-vCenter Twin, drift detection, LLM Remediation Advisor, MCP server with 6 audited tools, web dashboard, and vmware-harden doctor environment diagnostics.

Quickstart

uv tool install vmware-harden

# List built-in baselines
vmware-harden baseline list

# Run a scan
vmware-harden scan --target <vcenter-name> --baseline cis-vmware-esxi-8.0-subset

# Or use 等保 2.0 三级 (国内合规独家)
vmware-harden scan --target <vc> --baseline dengbao-2.0-level3-vmware

# View results
vmware-harden report
vmware-harden drift

# Generate remediation suggestions
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...  # optional; falls back to mock without
vmware-harden advise --all-critical

# Web dashboard
vmware-harden web --port 8080  # → http://127.0.0.1:8080

Read-Only Mode

vmware-harden is read-only by design — all 6 MCP tools carry the [READ] marker, and scan_target writes only to the local twin DB (a cache of observations, not managed infrastructure). Since v1.8.0 that is provable rather than merely documented: set VMWARE_READ_ONLY=true and the family read-only gate enumerates the registry at startup and verifies that zero write tools are exposed — structural, not a prompt instruction. Off by default. Fail-closed: if the mode is requested but cannot be guaranteed, the server refuses to start rather than running open.

The same variable is family-wide: one env var also strips every write tool from the write-capable siblings (aiops, storage, vks, nsx, ...), so a whole-estate audit posture is a single setting.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vmware-harden": {
      "command": "vmware-harden",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VMWARE_READ_ONLY": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

• Per-skill override: VMWARE_HARDEN_READ_ONLY beats the family-wide VMWARE_READ_ONLY. vmware-harden has no config.yaml, so the env vars are the only switch. Precedence: per-skill env → family env → off.
• Startup log: nothing is logged as withheld because nothing is — the gate's empty result is the assertion (write-capable siblings log Read-only mode active ... withheld N write tool(s) instead).

Built-in baselines

Baseline	Rules	Applies to	Source
cis-vmware-esxi-8.0-subset	20	host	CIS Benchmark v1.0
vsphere-scg-v8-subset	15	host, vm	VMware vcf-security-and-compliance-guidelines
dengbao-2.0-level3-vmware	20	host, vm, datastore, dfw_rule	GB/T 22239-2019 三级
pci-dss-4.0-vmware	10	host, dfw_rule	PCI-DSS v4.0
eu-nis2-vmware	12	host, dfw_rule	EU NIS2 Directive (Articles 21/23, Annex I)
bsi-itgs-basisabsicherung-vmware	10	host	BSI IT-Grundschutz (OPS.1.1.4 + SYS.1.1)

VCF 9.0 / 9.1 Compatibility

The existing baselines (cis-vmware-esxi-8.0-subset, vsphere-scg-v8, dengbao-2.0-level3-vmware, pci-dss-4.0-vmware) scan VCF 9.0 / 9.1 clusters successfully — most rules target host advanced settings stable across 8.x → 9.x. cis-vmware-esxi-9.0 and vsphere-scg-v9 baselines are planned for a future release.

Official Broadcom References

• Security Configuration Guides: https://core.vmware.com/security/ — vSphere SCG v8 / future v9
• SDKs: https://developer.broadcom.com/sdks — VCF Python SDK (for fetching host config via REST)
• CIS Benchmarks: https://www.cisecurity.org/cis-benchmarks/ — CIS VMware ESXi Benchmark v1.0 (8.0 / future 9.0)

Custom baselines

vmware-harden baseline validate ./my-strict.yaml
vmware-harden baseline import ./my-strict.yaml --name my-strict-cis
vmware-harden scan --target <vc> --baseline my-strict-cis

YAML supports extends: for inheriting from a built-in baseline. See skills/vmware-harden/references/cli-reference.md.

MCP server

vmware-harden mcp  # stdio MCP server (legacy alias: vmware-harden-mcp)

Configure your MCP client with one of examples/mcp-configs/*.json. 6 read-only tools: list_baselines, list_violations, get_remediation, list_drift_events, get_baseline_rules, scan_target.

Architecture

• Estate Digital Twin — DuckDB single file at ~/.vmware-harden/twin.duckdb. Multi-target safe via target prefix on all node IDs.
• Collectors — lazy-import sibling vmware-* skills (no spawn overhead). All scans are READ; writes deferred to vmware-pilot.
• Baseline schema — Pydantic v2, strict (extra="forbid"), extends: inheritance, user-dir override.
• Drift — pure diff function with optional persistence; auto-runs after every scan.
• Advisor — LLM-driven Suggestion generation; Anthropic provider with prompt caching; mock fallback for tests / no-API-key environments.
• Audit — every MCP tool wrapped with @vmware_tool from family vmware-policy.
• Web — FastAPI + Jinja2 + Tailwind/HTMX/ECharts CDN.

Lab regression

export VMWARE_HARDEN_LAB_TARGET=<your-vc>
pytest tests/eval/regression -v -m lab

Family

• vmware-aiops — host inventory + ops (used by harden's HostCollector)
• vmware-monitor — read-only counterpart
• vmware-storage — datastore inventory
• vmware-nsx-security — DFW inventory
• vmware-pilot — execute remediations (writes; out of scope for harden)
• vmware-policy — @vmware_tool audit decorator

Acceptance criteria (v1.5.18 GA)

• 221 tests passing
• Bandit: 0 issues at any severity
• All 6 MCP tools audited
• SKILL.md ≤ 3000 words, family-convention compliant
• SECURITY.md with 6 elements + Broadcom disclaimer
• 6 built-in baselines (87 rules)
• vmware-harden doctor for environment diagnostics
• GA member of vmware-* family (version-aligned at 1.5.28)

References

• Design: parent monorepo docs/plans/2026-05-03-vmware-harden-design.md
• M1/M2/M3 plans: docs/plans/2026-05-04-vmware-harden-{m1,m2,m3}-plan.md
• Family CLAUDE.md: /Users/zw/testany/myskills/CLAUDE.md

License

MIT